ANNOUNCEMENT:Mrs Gretchen Campbell, who has been the
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Please do not call us, as we cannot add any more information at this time.
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CONTENTS of this
WIN

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DCI GEORGE TENET's TENURE
SPECULATION -- In what is one
of Washington's favorite sports, rumors are circulating within the upper
levels of the Bush administration that CIA Director George J. Tenet will step
down some time in the next several months. Mr. Tenet has been CIA director
since 1997. Among the names mentioned as replacements are Deputy Secretary of
State Richard Armitage and Rep. Porter J. Goss, Florida Republican and
chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who, as a former CIA spook, has
been one of the Agency's most ardent defenders. Former CIA Director R. James
Woolsey also has been mentioned as a candidate, along with Richard Haver, a
special assistant to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for intelligence
issues. A CIA spokesman says Mr. Tenet has no plans to quit. (Jonkers) (Notes
from the Pentagon, August 2, 2002 //Gertz)) (http://www.gertzfile.com/gertzfile/InsidetheRing.html)

GREEK ASSASSINS
ARRESTED -- The third of the
Greek terrorists accused of the assassination of CIA Station Chief Richard S.
Welch in 1975 has been arrested by the Greek police. Nikos Papanastasiou, now
50 years old, part of the 'November 17' terrorist group, was captured while on
holiday. Another member, Pavlos Seriffs, 46, has confessed to being part of
the assassination. team (he was 19 at the time). Alexandros Yiotopoulos,
already in police custody, is being held as the mastermind of the murder.

As noted in WIN #30, these arrests have been a long time in coming and are
steps on the way to settling a bitter score. In the witch hunt climate set by
the Church Committee Hearings in the mid-seventies, when an alarming number of
secret operations and individuals were compromised, Welch had been openly
identified as a CIA Station Chief in publications such as the CounterSpy
magazine. The traitor Philip Agee had also identified Welch as a CIA officer
in his book. It is not clear why Welch was not quickly replaced after all that
publicity, but the assassination may have been as unexpected as the September
11th attack was in the struggle to contain terrorism. The 'November 17' group,
of course, went on to twenty-two further killings in the name of Marxist
utopianism and Greek xenophobia. (Jonkers) (via La Clair)

THE WAR ON DRUGS AND THE
FBI -- It seems unrelated, but
a tough Louisiana Judge Ronnie Bodenheimer, a former prosecutor known for
extremely harsh sentencing, was arrested and arraigned at the Federal
courthouse in New Orleans on 24 July. Allegedly the Judge, determined to take
revenge on someone with whom he had a disagreement, conspired to plant some
narcotics in his victim's truck. His co-conspirator has pleaded guilty to a
federal drug charge. The FBI has tapes of conversations. The Judge is
scheduled for trial in the Fall.

This item is a small but serious example of the mountain of corruption within
our domestic system that will continue to require Federal / FBI investigations
and strong FBI crime-solving capability. It further illustrates the
insidiously corrupting side-effects of the War on Drugs, which has been
conducted with an ideological fervor similar to our latest war, the 'War on
Terrorism.' The War on Drugs has a large military and intelligence component
-- we are 'at war' in Colombia and adjoining states, (employing chemical
warfare and guerilla operations), and foreign intelligence is a strong player
in the game. The drug war has also fueled a great growth industry -- the
largest underclass GULAG prison population in the world. It has opened the
door to official corruption large and small through the availability of
confiscated property without the benefit of the courts. It has made
individuals vulnerable to blackmail and worse as demonstrated by Judge
Bodenheimer's alleged intent to plant narcotics on his victim. And it has led
to increasing danger for police as well as brutalization of police
methods.

These facts lead to several suggestions, including (1) a high-level rational
re-thinking of our whole approach in regards to narcotics, (2) the necessity
of keeping a strong FBI involved in investigating corruption and crime (and
not throwing out the baby with the bathwater in the current FBI War on
Terrorism reforms),and (3) serious consideration of the potential of similar
or worse side-effects of the War on Terrorism on our domestic American values
and society. (Jonkers) (WPost 6 Aug 02, p. A3)

FISA AND THE CONSTITUTION -- Confounding familiar stereotypes, members of
the Senate Judiciary Committee last week said at a Hearing on 25 July that the
Department of Justice had set "too high a standard" for approving surveillance
under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and needed to be more
aggressive. But Attorney General Ashcroft demurred, saying his hands were tied
by the U.S. Constitution.

"The committee is considering the standards for issuance of warrants under the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act," Sen. Arlen Specter said, "I believe
that the FBI, and in turn the Department of Justice, are not imposing the
appropriate standard. They've got too high a standard." Attorney General
Ashcroft replied that "The Constitution provides that no warrant shall issue
absent probable cause. That's been our sticking point." Nevertheless, the
Attorney General continued, "We'll be happy to work with you because we want
to make sure we're doing what we can to make available every investigational
tool to curtail terrorism."

SPECULATION ON COVERT ACTION IN
IRAQ --
The unorganized but
widespread campaign on in the media these days on the subject of a possible
attack on Iraq, requires alertness to sort facts from beliefs in reading
Iraqi-related items. One AP-generated article on the likelihood of success of
covert action in Iraq, however, has a ring of unbiased reality in implicitly
concluding that covert success will be hard to come by. It notes that
Hussein's internal security machine is so effective that it is unlikely any
current generals could be turned against the dictator. Former CIA DDI, John
Gannon, is quoted as saying, "The generals are a hard nut to crack. To get
[Hussein] with covert action is going to be very, very hard." A former CIA
"counter-terrorism chief" says, "It is very unrealistic to think their
military is going to join against him until they see his dead body."

The Kurds in the north have some fighting forces, but the two main Kurdish
groups oppose each other. Both groups are prospering under the US/British
no-fly sanctuary zone, distrust US reliability {with good reason], and are
reluctant to commit their future to anti-Hussein actions. Had the writer
wanted to continue on his cold-water approach, he might have added that the
Shiites in the south (about 40 percent of the total population) are heavily
indebted to Tehran for any cohesion they could muster and, like the Kurds, has
no reason to be confident of US reliability. (Harvey) (Philadelphia Inquirer 7
Aug '02 // AP // J. Lumpkin)

SECURITY RESTRICTIONS ON
FEDERAL WORKERS and SOLDIERS
-- The wireless soldier may be getting some new strings attached. The Defense
Department, concerned that hackers or spies might eavesdrop on classified
meetings or secretly track the locations of top U.S. officials, is imposing
new limits on its workers use of the latest generation of wireless devices
inside military buildings. (Levine's Newsbits, 31 July 02)

ITALIAN POLICE ARREST HACKERS
OF U.S. WEBSITES -- Tipped off
by American officials, Italian police shut down two rings of hackers who
attacked Web sites belonging to the U.S. Army and NASA, as well as Internet
pages in Italy. Police said 14 people were arrested. They were charged with
computer fraud and face up to eight years in jail if convicted. (Levine 1 Aug
02)

SWORD OF ISLAM: Muslim
Extremism from the Arab conquests to the Attack on America, by John F. Murphy Jr., Prometheus Books, Amherst,
NY 2002. ISBN 1-59102-010-7, with Appendices, Notes, Glossary, Index and
Bibliography. This is a popular history, well researched and authentic,
written clearly and well. John Murphy traces the intricate interconnections
among various terrorist cells, and puts recent terrorist attacks in a
historical context. The reader will find this useful in understanding the
roots of Islamic extremism that has erupted periodically over the ages.

Such subjects as the September 2, 1898 defeat of the Mahdiist army at
Omdurman, Sudan, that spoiled an Islamic Messiah's efforts to 'liberate' the
Moslem world from Western 'corruption' and colonial control, and the more
recent violent acts by the PLO in trying to counter the Israeli occupation of
Palestine, including the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics by
the Moslem Black September group, as well as the author's description of bin
Laden in terms of the historical context, are most interesting. Incidentally,
the author, a military historian, is objective in pointing out that the other
two religions bred in the deserts of the "Holy Land," Judaism and
Christianity, also have produced their share of extremism and terrorism. This
book is worth reading. (John Waller)

[Editor Note: The author
has arranged for AFIO Members to receive a 10% discount for orders placed
directly with Prometheus at 1-800-421-0351, ext 214, as for Marcia
Rogers].

SEE NO EVIL: The True
Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism, by Robert Baer, Crown Publishers, New York 2002.
ISBN 0-609-60987-4, with Glossary, Photos, Index. Edward Shirley's acidic
Know Thine Enemy is a
recent contribution to the intelligence
literature of discontent. At first glance Robert Baer's book might
appear to fall in the same category, but that judgment would be wrong.
See No Evil is better
characterized as a memoir of disillusionment written in a positive style, not
the bitter tone of those who wrote because they could not cope with the
demands of the clandestine life. While at times critical, Baer clearly is
proud of the CIA and his service during his twenty-four year career. The book
tells of his unusual upbringing and his recruitment by the Agency that saw in
him the makings of a promising case officer. With restrained modesty, Baer
provides a first-hand view of a successful case officer in the field as an
operational street man.

This is a timely book,
documented with intriguing, often awesome stories written with a sense of
humor. Baer's comments on the tradecraft of espionage as practiced on the
ground, -- the successes and the failures -- will enlighten historians and
laymen interested in the profession. See No Evil should be mandatory
reading for all candidates for the clandestine service and the analysts --
geographic, functional and technical -- who benefit from the collector's hard
work.

This is a fine memoir, one
of the very best ever written. (Hayden Peake)

Editors
Note: This is an excerpt of
the full review of See No
Evil written by Hayden Peake, foremost intelligence
bibliophile and AFIO member, that will be published in the next edition of the
AFIO Periscope, to be published shortly. (RKJ)

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT RESOURCES
ON FOIA -- The Department of
Justice's Freedom of Information Act Guide, last updated in May 2002, was
posted online earlier this month on the Justice web site. The Guide provides
an authoritative review of the workings of the FOIA along with a detailed
explication of how each of the Act's exemptions has evolved through judicial
interpretation, providing abundant citations to the case law. The Justice
Department has also recently posted updated versions of its Privacy Act
Overview and its Freedom of Information Case List. See: http://www.usdoj.gov/04foia/04_7.html
(Secrecy News)

CHURCH COMMITTEE REPORTS
ONLINE -- Volumes 2 and 3 of
the landmark 1976 report of the Church Committee -- formally known as the U.S.
Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to
Intelligence Activities --have recently been posted online. Both volumes,
which generally address domestic surveillance and civil liberties, have long
been out of print. They have newly been made available, along with related
materials, by researcher Paul Wolf on his web site here:

HAMAS ORIGINS -- Analyst Nachman Tal describes how Hamas got off
to its start with its declaration of struggle against Israel, and how death in
the name of Allah would be a sacred good, in SUICIDE ATTACKS: ISRAEL AND
ISLAMIC TERRORISM: "Nor should there be any mincing of words:
participation in jihad for the liberation of Palestine is a personal
obligation incumbent on every Muslim when an enemy steals any of the lands of
the Muslims. Given the Jews' theft of Palestine, the flag of jihad must be
unfurled."

NORTH VIETNAM's TOP SPY
DIES -- Vu Ngoc Nha, a spy for
communist North Vietnam who was a close friend and adviser to two South
Vietnamese presidents before he was unmasked by U.S. intelligence during the
Vietnam War, has died at age 74.

Nha died Wednesday 7
August 2002, after a long illness at his home in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly
Saigon. Nha was an insider in the administrations of presidents Ngo Dinh Diem
and Nguyen Van Thieu, and fed secret information to the North until he was
exposed by the CIA in 1969 and sentenced to life in prison. After the Vietnam
War ended with the North's victory over the U.S.-backed South in 1975, Nha was
promoted to major general in the Communist army. Nha's exploits were described
in a biography by Huu Mai entitled "The Adviser." (AP 8 Aug 02) http://apnews.excite.com/article/20020808/D7L96HN00.html

FORMER GERMAN ESPIONAGE CHIEF
DIES -- Gerhard Wessel, 88, a
member of Nazi Germany's Intelligence apparatus during WWII, who went on to
head West Germany's Federal Intelligence Service, died in July in Pullach, a
suburb of Munich.

Gerhard Wessel was born on Dec. 24, 1913, in the Holstein city of
Neumünster, the son of an Evangelical pastor who had been held at one time by
the Gestapo for statements he had made from the pulpit. The son joined the
army in 1932, directly after his high school graduation. In their book "The
General Was a Spy" (Bantam, 1972), Heinz Höhne and Hermann Zolling say his
fellow officers regarded the young recruit as "a reserved, impenetrable
personality," but General Gehlen was immediately attracted to his analytical
mind. They said General Gehlen, who was not a good speaker, also valued the
younger man's verbal ability and found him a valuable and efficient staff
officer.

In January 1945, General Gehlen reported to Hitler that the Soviets planned a
major attack. Hitler was so enraged that he fired General Gehlen as chief of
the intelligence group that focused on Russia, replacing him with General
Wessel, then a lieutenant colonel. Incidentally, General Gehlen had been
planning his surrender to the United States since the fall of 1944 and had a
group of his officers microfilm their files for future use.

After the war, the United States recognized that it did not have effective
intelligence about the Soviet Union, its former ally. General Gehlen
negotiated an agreement . The United States paid $3.4 million for the first
year's work by what had

been christened the Gehlen
Organization. It had 350 agents, and General Wessel was Chief of Evaluation.
In 1952, General Gehlen detached General Wessel, then a colonel, from their
tightly guarded compound in Pullach to help organize intelligence services for
the new West German Army. He supervised counterintelligence for the army for
seven years.

As the Gehlen Organization was transferred to newly sovereign West Germany's
intelligence service in April 1956, Wessel remained an aide to General Gehlen,
until he replaced him in 1968. As the successor to Reinhard Gehlen as chief of
the agency — known as the BND, for Bundesnachrichtendienst -- he is credited
with modernizing German intelligence gathering and curbing some abuses. He
hired academic analysts and electronics experts to serve alongside agents, and
ordered spies to stop shadowing Germans inside Germany. His demand for greater
openness was reflected in orders for agents to stop wearing the dark glasses
favored under General Gehlen's leadership. He listed the BND in the phone
book. During General Wessel's watch, the BND began to have open houses. He
attended so many events and parties that Herbert Wehner, a leader of the
Social Democratic Party, called him "the cocktail general." He became known
for placing flowers everywhere. It takes all kinds.(Jonkers) (NYTimes // D.
Martin)

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